53-pound snapping turtle saved from pipe

Updated 12:04 pm, Friday, December 2, 2016

Photo: AP

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This Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2016 photo provided by the Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center of Texas shows a wounded 53 pound alligator snapping turtle. The turtle is recovering at a Houston wildlife rehabilitation center after fire-rescue crews saved it from a rural drainage pipe. The Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the threatened-species specimen was found wedged Tuesday in the pipe in a new residential development near Hockley, about 35 miles northwest of Houston. (Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center of Texas via AP) less

This Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2016 photo provided by the Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center of Texas shows a wounded 53 pound alligator snapping turtle. The turtle is recovering at a Houston wildlife rehabilitation center after fire-rescue crews saved it from a rural drainage pipe. The Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the threatened-species specimen was found wedged Tuesday in the pipe in a new residential development near Hockley, about 35 miles northwest of Houston. (Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center of Texas via AP) less

Fire-rescue crews used a spreader to open the pipe enough to remove the turtle, which had struggled to keep its head above water. Several drowned alligator snapping turtles flowed from the newly unblocked pipe.

The SPCA said it also is rehabilitating one other alligator snapping turtle, which had an embedded fish hook and other serious wounds. Both will be returned to the wild after recovering.

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This story has been corrected to delete reference to 53-pound turtle being wounded. Other turtle was wounded.